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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23096128">The Sky is Connected</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Love Live! Sunshine!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcohol Withdrawal, Angst with a Happy Ending, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, MILFs, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:48:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,895</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23096128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>20 years following the events of Love Live! - Sunshine, Hanamaru Kunikada's life has fallen to pieces. After going to college in Osaka and spending so much time apart from her friends, something painful happened 15 years ago that made her lose contact with them. But after her alcholism consumes her paychecks and she's evicted due to failure to pay rent, something makes her find her way back to Uchiura. Can she reconnect with the closest friends she's ever known? Do they even want her back? And can she finally put the pieces of her life back together again?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kazuno Leah/Kurosawa Ruby, Kunikida Hanamaru &amp; Kurosawa Ruby, Kunikida Hanamaru &amp; Takami Chika, Kunikida Hanamaru &amp; Watanabe You, Kunikida Hanamaru/Tsushima Yoshiko, Matsuura Kanan/Ohara Mari, Takami Chika/Watanabe You</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Just Another Bar</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hanamaru finds herself wandering back to Uchiura after being evicted and meets Chika, who is overjoyed to see her again.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I couldn't tell you what brought me back to Uchiura. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't sold a short story in over a year. Maybe it was the fact that my waitressing job didn't get me enough money for both food and alcohol, both of which I know I'd die without. Maybe it was the notice taped to my apartment door in Osaka that said "EVICTION NOTICE FOR HANAMARU KUNIKADA" in bright red font. And it's not like I aimed for Uchiura, anyway. I was sort of listless after the eviction; I grabbed my stuff, got on a train and had no idea where I'd bought my ticket to until I arrived. I'm sure other people who've become suddenly homeless can understand. It's hard for you to really get what it feels like to be homeless until you end up spending the night sleepless and hungry in an alleyway. You end up in a daze, just sort of going on autopilot. Looking back, I'm lucky that I ended up anywhere familiar at all. At least in Uchiura, I didn't have to spend too much time hunting for a bar to pass out in.</p><p>I don't remember the name of the bar; I rarely do. Something to do with oranges, I think, which makes sense considering how obsessed this backwater is with tangerines. I barely remember what happened in it, either; not like I have to, since it's fairly easy to guess how nasty I got. But when I came to, it wasn't the sterile smell of a hospital room that met me, nor the harsh surface of an alleyway. At first, I closed my eyes and laid back down, thinking that I was home safely and everything from my eviction onwards was just a nasty dream. But when I felt the ground beneath me, my eyes shot back open. My apartment had a couch and a chair, both of which I'd sleep in depending on whether I'd ended the previous night futilely trying to squeeze a story out of my head or not, but one thing it didn't have? A futon. And it didn't smell this...clean. My apartment reeked of alcohol, and on several occasions I'd had to light scented candles when it got too much for even my desensitised nose. But this place smelled just like the nearby ocean; cool, salty and crisp. Looking around, I guessed it was a hotel room, probably a ryokan. Either I'd had the time of my life with a beautiful woman last night, or I'd just passed out and a good samaritan bought me a hotel room so I wouldn't have to stay the night on the street. For some reason, the second option seemed more likely to me.</p><p>I groaned and crawled out of the futon. I was wearing a white bathrobe, and the sweater and jeans I'd passed out in were nowhere to be seen; neither was my suitcase or my shoes and socks. I had a pounding hangover that made it hard for me to think, but I managed to find the bathroom door and stumble in, flicking on the light and squinting until my eyes adjusted, wincing from the sudden spike in my headache.</p><p>I took stock of myself in the mirror. Rat's nest of tangled sandy brown hair? Check. Dark circles under my eyes? Check. A permanent slouch? Check. Flab that seemed to purposefully avoid my chest, concentrating almost entirely in my lower body? Check. Unhealthily pale skin? Check. A very slight yellowing in the whites of my eyes that probably wasn't healthy? Check. Callouses on my fingers from clutching my pen too tightly? Check. Everything seemed normal. I took my bathrobe off and stepped into the shower; maybe some cold water would do me some good.</p><p>By the time I got out of the shower wrapped in towels with my hangover improved somewhat, there was a woman waiting for me, standing next to the futon. And when I say woman, I fucking mean WOMAN. She had to be over six feet tall from the way she effortlessly towered over me. Her short orange hair framed a beautiful face with a gentle, motherly smile and deep red eyes I could barely tear myself away from. As I traced my eyes down her body, I found myself mesmerised by just how thick and curvy her body was, and how excellently her orange yukata fit her. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm a pervert. But I always find myself losing composure around beautiful women. A soft giggle from the woman broke the absolute silence of the room, and I suddenly remembered myself. I turned bright red as it hit me that, yes, attractive women are people.<br/>
"I--I'm so sorry, I d-didn't mean to stare, zura!" I stammered out.<br/>
"Oh, Hanamaru-chan, you've barely changed at all," the woman said in a sweet, gentle voice that slammed me square in the chest, staggering me backwards. That voice was one I knew better than my own. It had barely changed in 15 years.<br/>
"CH-CHIKA?!?!" I blurted out at the top of my lungs, then slapped my hands over my mouth, flushing even more.<br/>
Chika laughed, a sound that seemed to hit me right in the heart, digging up memories I thought I'd buried. To think that this beautiful woman was Chika, and I'd been ogling her up like she was a stripper...<br/>
"Yes, Hanamaru-chan. It's been quite a while, hasn't it? I've missed you so much," Chika said, her whole face seeming to soften.<br/>
She held out her arms, asking me a silent question with her eyes, wide and brimming with tears.<br/>
I ran into Chika's embrace, squeezing her tightly. My answer was a wholehearted yes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>this is the first time ive posted any fanfiction to a public website, so needless to say im very nervous about this and it took me hours to decide to post this, but. here it is! i hope you enjoyed it! (•͈ᴗ•͈) if you liked it, be sure to leave a kudos and comment!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Reunion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hanamaru thinks back to how she got where she is now and why she cut herself off from Aqours, or perhaps more accurately, why Aquors cut themselves off from her.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I was 18 and in my first year of college when I started drinking. It wasn't legal, but at the college I went to for my creative writing degree in Osaka, there were students selling sake to underage students for only a bit above how much it would cost normally, and that's how I got it before I was 20. I can't remember when I had my first drink or what the circumstances were; all I know is I decided I liked it. Of course I'd realised I had a drinking problem when I was showing up to my morning classes hungover, but I always reasoned I'd stop before it got too bad, and besides, I was managing to keep my grades decent, so it didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time.</p><p>It was my last year of college when I really dropped the ball. I'd been staying in contact with my friends through text and calling Ruby on the phone weekly, but I'd been withdrawing into my shell with no one I knew around to coax me out, so I was a bit of a hermit.</p><p>When I got the call that my parents died in a car crash, I fell apart. Ruby texted me a few days afterwards.</p><p>RUBY: hanamaru-chan, please answer my calls<br/>
RUBY: im really really worried about you<br/>
RUBY: you shouldnt have to deal with this alone<br/>
RUBY: i know you dont have any other family<br/>
RUBY: but im here for you and i always will be, so please just talk to me<br/>
HANAMARU: please just let me be alone for a while, ruby-chan. i just need some time to myself is all</p><p>It took Ruby ten minutes of typing to send her response.</p><p>RUBY: ok hanamaru-chan<br/>
RUBY: be safe</p><p>I've never texted her back once in the 13 years since she sent me that message. I regret that last text I sent more than I regret anything else I've ever done.</p><p>My drinking problem got worse. At first I was just drinking for the sake of the rush, yknow? But now I had something to escape from when I drank. Something to run from. Something I was scared of. I was being crushed by memories of my parents. My dad was teaching me how to write every time I saw a pen. My mom was helping me put on my yukata every time I passed by a shrine. Every time I ate, I remembered the taste of my parents' cooking. And every time a car drove past me, I started shaking and had to hold back tears. My parents were everywhere except at the bottom of a cup of sake, so that's the only place I could be.</p><p>A few weeks after the accident, I got an email from Mari. She was holding a reunion for the three classes of students that had attended Uranohoshi during its final year of operation, and I was invited. I shouldn't have said yes. If that text to Ruby is my greatest regret, emailing Mari "I'd love to be there" is easily my second greatest. But I was desperate for something to do, and some part of me realised I needed to talk to people or I'd never get over my parents. So I found myself taking a train to Uchiura to see my only friends for the first time in five years.</p><p>I showed up to the reunion drunk. I still beat myself up for that, and I have no idea why I did it. I don't even remember when I got drunk that day or why. Maybe I was afraid to see my friends and needed something to give me courage, I don't know. Only a few moments stick out to me in perfect clarity.</p><p>When I saw Ruby, her face lit up and she tackled me in a hug. "Hanamaru-chan! It's so good to see you again!" I was a little startled, but I returned the hug. When Ruby finally let go of me, a girl with purple hair that I recognised as Leah from Saint Snow took Ruby's hand. The confusion on my face must've been obvious, because Ruby said "Oh, Hanamaru-chan, you remember Leah-chan, right? From Saint Snow? We started dating a few months ago."</p><p>I'd been in love with Ruby since before we joined Aquors, and hearing that awakened something inside me. It wasn't a desire to only see the best for Ruby. It wasn't jealousy that she had something I didn't. No, it was possessiveness and betrayal. How dare Leah take Ruby from me? And how dare Ruby fall in love with someone besides me?</p><p>The next thing I remembered, I was lying in the dirt outside the building with two black eyes and a broken nose, and Dia was glaring at me, unblinking, her face an expressionless mask I still see in my nightmares. I've seen Dia angry before. This was something else entirely. It was like the hatred inside of her had burned everything away, filling her with nothing but cold spite for me. She turned around like I was a bug she'd just thrown outside, walked back into the building and left me there. I didn't try to go inside and explain myself. What was the point? I was still drunk, and even if I didn't remember what I said or did to Ruby or Leah, I had a guess as to how bad it was. I just laid there and started crying, trying not to think about how my body was already crying out for another cup of sake.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i am a fool and got myself invested in all of the characters in this au, but i dont know if all of them will get a chance to shine in "the sky is connected" due to its focus on hanamaru, so i was thinking of maybe writing a few things about the rest of them! "the sky is connected" takes priority though, so i wont do that until i finish this! thank you so much for reading  ( ꈍᴗꈍ)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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